I have been investing in preference shares (prefs) for many years, so much so that I had forgotten that as an investment form, prefs are actually inferior to stocks and bonds. In fact, prefs have been the cornerstone of my equity-centric investment strategy, saving my equity portfolio during severe market crashes, as described in Behind Every Successful Bear Market Recovery is A Cash-Like Instrument. It was only last week when Hyflux launched its IPO of perpetual capital securities (perps) that I looked into the features of perps and remembered that prefs and perps (which are similar in nature to prefs) are inferior to stocks and bonds as an investment form.
Just to recap the characteristics of prefs and perps, they are perpetual securities with no redemption dates and hence are considered some form of equity. Unlike stocks, they have a pre-determined dividend/ distribution rate (distribution shall include to mean ...
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